1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to targeted online advertisements, and more particularly, to targeted online advertisements based on data from an electronic location calendar.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has long been a desire by advertisers to more effectively target their advertisements in order to avoid wasted impressions and more efficiently utilize their ad budgets. In contrast to advertising on traditional media, such as television, radio, and print publications, advertising on the internet, or interactive media, has become popular among advertisers because of new targeting capabilities.
Early on in interactive media, advertisers were given the ability to target their advertisements to specific websites, and did so base on the audience demographics of the website. Advertisers were also able to target within specific sections of a specific website, such as the sports section or real estate section. This level of targeting was not such a great leap over traditional media.
In cases where a website had user registration data, advertisers were able to target specific demographic data obtained from the registration process. For example, a fictional website, such as www.ANewspaperExample.com might require users to register in order to view content. In such a case, they may collect demographic information such as the user's gender. With this demographic readily available on www.ANewspaperExample.com, advertisers are given the capability to target based on this data. For example, an advertiser may have an ad campaign where they may only want to target males, which they can now do with www.ANewspaperExample.com.
In many cases however, websites do not require registration, as it deters users away from the site. This is especially true of websites that are focused with online publication of content. Advertisers are able to target based on content in these cases. So instead of targeting a user specifically, advertisers can select to target their display of ads on a webpage based on the content contained within that webpage. For example, an advertiser may have an advertisement which is to be targeted to the keyword “toothbrush,” which will cause the advertisement to be displayed on web-pages which have mention of the word “toothbrush.”
Ads that are targeted based on content can also be used within search engines. Continuing with the example above, if there is an advertisement associated with the keyword “toothpaste,” this ad might be displayed whenever a user goes to a search engine and performs a search for the word “toothpaste.” Although similar, this form of advertising is commonly referred to as keyword-targeted advertising, and the example in the previous paragraph is referred to as content-targeted advertising.
Although keyword-targeted advertising and content-targeted advertising has provided major strides in targeting in the interactive media space, it is strongly believed that more effective means of targeting may exist. One new field of advertising that is growing in popularity is known has behavioral targeting. As the name implies, this type of targeting give the advertiser the capability to target based on the user's current behavior. For example, if a user visits a series of websites implying that the user is researching different types of blenders, an advertiser, such as a retailer, can target this user and display an ad showing the user a blender for sale. Behavioral targeting requires complex logic to determine the user's behavior based on the user's profile along with web-pages the user is visiting. In addition, because much of the data is being collected real-time, it requires heavy processing capabilities.
A couple other related art to this invention include the social network and the electronic location calendar (aka travel calendar). Social networking technology and electronic location calendar technology can be combined to greatly assist travelers in staying in touch with friends, family, and associates.
Travelers, especially business travelers, are finding themselves traveling alone and for an extended period. They are also finding that they are traveling to destinations completely foreign and unfamiliar to them. Whether or not they are traveling alone, travelers typically would like the opportunity to find and meet with related individuals, such as friends, family members, business associates, or even friends of friends while at their travel destination.
Typically, in order to accomplish this task, the traveler would first have to perform the step 100 of keeping track of related individuals by using a paper or electronic organizer. Upon completing the step 110 of determining travel plans, the traveler must then perform the step 120 of contacting each related individual in order to determine if that related individual will be at the same location within the same date range. If the related individual's contact information is out of date, the traveler needs to take the additional step 150 of figuring out the updated contact information. Once the step 140 of contacting the related individual is completed, the traveler can determine whether or not the related individual will be at the same location within the same date range. If so, the traveler can then take the step 170 of noting this and making arrangements to meet with the related individual.
The combination of a social network and an electronic location calendar enables travelers to easily discover which related individuals, if any, will be at the destination at the same time that the traveler will be. The traveler does not have to personally contact every friend, family member, business associate, etc., to discover this information as they would previously. Once the traveler discovers which related individuals will be in the same geographical proximity on a given date, the traveler can then contact those related individuals and make arrangements to meet.
The social network is an integral component for achieving the convenience above. There are several online social networks on the internet today, such as Friendster, Orkut, and Plaxo. An online social network allows an individual to easily keep track of relationships that the individual has with other people by leveraging the internet. Each individual maintains his or her own account profile on the online social network, and defines who his or her related individuals are. Once defined, the online social network retains the relationship.
FIG. 4a, FIG. 4b, FIG. 4c, FIG. 4d, and FIG. 4e represent relationship diagrams to provide a better understanding of online social networks. In this example, all relationships are symmetrical, meaning if User A 400 is a related individual of User B 410, then User B 410 must be a related individual of User A 400. An online social network need not have such a symmetrical relationship. In FIG. 4a, User A 400 defines his relationship with three related individuals, User B 410, User C 420, and User D 430. Each of these three related individuals have their own relationship to their own related individuals. The relationship diagram in FIG. 4b reveals User B's 410 related individuals. As shown, User B's related individuals are User A 400, User C 420, User E 440, and User F 450. FIG. 4c shows that User C's 420 related individuals are User A 400, User B 410, User F 450, and User G 460. FIG. 4d shows that User D's 430 related individuals are User A 400, User G 460, User H 470, User I 480, and User J 490. In FIG. 4e, User A's 400 related individuals are shown, with up to one degree of separation. User A's 400 related individuals at zero degree of separation include User B 410, User C, 420, and User D 430. User A's 400 related individuals at one degree of separation include User E 440, User F 450, User G 460, User H 470, User I 480, and User J 490.
The advantages of an electronic social network are numerous. An electronic social network is able to maintain a list of related individuals for a member. Since an electronic social network stores a relationship (or link) to a related individual from a member, data about a related individual is managed by the related individual. For example, the electronic social network keeps a link between User A and User B. If User A's phone number changes, there is no need for User B to make the update. User A updates his/her phone number on the electronic social network, and the update is automatically reflected to User B. Similarly, the electronic social network also has a link between User A and User C, and thus User C would also sees User A's new phone number. Another advantage of an electronic social network is the ability to see related individuals at multiple levels of separation. Users of the electronic social network can see friends of friends, or others within one degree of separation. Of course, viewing users at more than one degree of separation is also possible.
The other integral component for helping travelers stay in touch with friends, family, and associates is the electronic location calendar. The electronic location calendar builds upon the conventional electronic calendar. There are several electronic calendars in existence today, and they can be in the form of a desktop application or a web application. FIG. 2 shows an example of a conventional electronic calendar. As can be seen in FIG. 2, in this calendar view, the scope is one month, and is primarily displaying the month of May. A month view is equivalent to a five week view displayed in a grid format. In this grid format, the spacing between the horizontal and vertical lines do not need to be completely uniform. Each day in the calendar view has its own day container. In this example, each day container is essentially a square. The last day of April and the first few days of June can also be seen in this conventional electronic calendar 200. The user has the ability to scroll forward or backwards in time by clicking on the back scroll 220 or forward scroll 210. The scroll will usually scroll in increments of a week or a month. In addition to the calendar view having a scope of one month, showing a scope of one day, one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, and so on are also possible.
The conventional electronic calendar is used for keeping track of events. Some example events are lunch appointments, meetings, birthdays, and trips. The conventional use for the electronic calendar is to record an event into the calendar so that the user is able to keep track of what appointments and commitments the user has for any given date. An event is entered with a start date and end date. It may also include a start time and end time if the event is not all day.
FIG. 3 provides a view of a conventional electronic calendar with four events entered by the user. The events shown in the conventional electronic calendar 300 as displayed as event overlays, and are “Meeting” 310, “Lunch” 320, “Camping with family” 330, and “Wedding” 340. The start time and end time are not displayed in this view, but could be. In this example view 300, the user may have a meeting with a co-worker at 3 pm on May 10th, and would enter it into the conventional electronic calendar. Once entered, it would appear graphically as an event overlay within the May 10th day container as seen in the “Meeting” event overlay 310. The same user may have a lunch appointment with a friend at 12 pm on May 14th, which can be seen in the “Lunch” event overlay 320 within the May 14th day container. The same user may be leaving for a camping trip with the family from May 18 until May 20, without specifying any start or end time. This is seen in the “Camping with family” event overlay 330 which spans across three day containers: May 18th, May 19th, and May 20th. Finally, the user may have a wedding to attend on May 27th from 2 pm until 5 pm, and this is displayed as the “Wedding” event overlay 340 within the May 27th day container.
An understanding of existing advertising technologies, along with an understanding of social networking and electronic location calendar technology will help to better understand the present invention and along with its many advantages in allowing advertisers to better target their advertisements.